1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to communication devices and services and in particular to communication devices and services employing calling party identification information to process incoming calls. Still moreparticularly, the present invention relates to a communication device or service employing calling party identification information together with a customizable database of allowable calling parties to determine whether and how to route an incoming call.
2. Description of the Related Art
Communications devices, including telephones, facsimile (fax) machines, answering machines, paging devices, and the like, have become an integral part of both business and domestic environments. While offering tremendous convenience and facilitating interpersonal contact and information exchange, these devices may also serve as an source of aggravation and annoyance.
A variety of caller identification, call screening and call blocking devices and/or services are offered or have been contemplated. Generally, however, such devices and services merely display calling party identification information while letting the call ring through. Incoming calls thus continue to disturb the receiving party and disrupt their activity. Existing devices and service also typically lack the capacity for customization, so that different calling parties may automatically be handled differently.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a mechanism for preventing an incoming call from disturbing the called party unless the called party wishes to receive the call, which also includes the capacity to be customized so that different calling parties are automatically handled differently.
Upon detecting an incoming call, a call screening system determines the CALLER ID information associated with the call and compares it to a database of allowable calling parties. If the calling party is to be allowed to ring through, the call screening system routes the incoming call to one or more communication devices associated with the calling party information in the allowable calling party database. In this manner, certain screened calls only ring through to a handset if authorized, while others are authorized to ring through to a fax machine, an answering machine, another handset, or a remote device connected between a remote handset and the local exchange. A single call screening device having several ports thus filters calls to multiple communications devices. Incoming call screening may be selectively different during different times of the day, for different calling parties, or for different communications devices connected to the call screening device. The call screening device may thus switch between allowing all incoming calls to ring through except those specifically designated to be blocked and screening all incoming calls except those specifically designated to be permitted to ring through. One or more override codes entered in a touch-tone keypad by the calling party may permit an incoming call to ring through despite an active screening mode.
In one aspect of the invention, caller ID data received between bursts 1 and 2 may be re-transmitted between burst 2 and 3. The system of the subject invention is adapted for identifying and connecting the required ports once the caller ID transmission is received, and well before the second ring burst is sent from the communications provider.
This provides the port connections to be made while then monitoring for the second ring burst. The caller ID data is then re-framed. Since the required ports are connected, the communication devices on these ports will actually see the second ring burst as a first ring burst and will be ready to receive the caller ID re-transmission and update data accordingly.